Raking over old coals.

[pederito1]

Exactly, Shaz and brilliantly put. It would be wonderful if she could be found alive though I do fear she could have followed the fate of April and Sarah.

[Workingman]

Shaz, you are almost certainly right on a few things: most of those who go missing are in their teens. Of the very young they are often abducted by family and often returned, or at least their whereabouts are known. Very few disappear without trace and, sadly, most that are eventually found tend to be like April, Sarah, Jessica and Holly - murdered.

As for keeping cases in the limelight, it doesn't work. If Maddie and Ben and any of the other "disappeared" had their faces on posters and buses and milk cartons, they would soon become invisible. Any initial flood of information would reduce to a trickle and a lot of it will have been irrelevant, a distraction and with a few red-herrings thrown in. This must wear down the resolve of the most dedicated investigators: The Yorkshire Ripper case comes to mind.

So, Maggie v Ben, I have a slightly different view.

Ben was a toddling boy holidaying with his family, who were renovating their farmhouse, in a remote village on a small island. Ben's mum was out working and he was left with his grandparents. Ben did, as many toddlers do, wander off. As soon as he was noticed missing the grandparents and friends started a search.... mum was informed, as were the police. The family were immediately interrogated, at length, as prime suspects in his disappearance. The airport and ports were not informed. Sky, the BBC, ITN and the world's media did not suddenly encamp to Kos for wall-to-wall coverage, but that's probably because Kerry didn't phone up her media friends (if she had any) with a story that turned out to be cock-and-bull. No British police investigation has ever taken place and the police have never visited Kos, though a team of specialist searchers did visit the island in 2012.

[Kaz]

So, Maggie v Ben, I have a slightly different view.

Ben was a toddling boy holidaying with his family, who were renovating their farmhouse, in a remote village on a small island. Ben's mum was out working and he was left with his grandparents. Ben did, as many toddlers do, wander off. As soon as he was noticed missing the grandparents and friends started a search.... mum was informed, as were the police. The family were immediately interrogated, at length, as prime suspects in his disappearance. The airport and ports were not informed. Sky, the BBC, ITN and the world's media did not suddenly encamp to Kos for wall-to-wall coverage, but that's probably because Kerry didn't phone up her media friends (if she had any) with a story that turned out to be cock-and-bull. No British police investigation has ever taken place and the police have never visited Kos, though a team of specialist searchers did visit the island in 2012.

Exactly Frank!

I have always had the same view of the McCann case right from the start, but expressing that view on DD at the time almost had people falling out with me, the pro-McCann feeling was running so high. It still does, so I'm actually a bit nervous about posting this, but I will.....

Ok here is my view, it is my personal view, and I certainly won't fall out with people if their view is entirely different

I think there has never been the slightest evidence that M was abducted - it was a disappearance not an abduction! In such cases the family are always prime suspect. There were reports from other holiday makers of the children crying alone in the villa, before the night of M's disappearance. I'm going to totally stick my neck out and say I think they gave M something to make her sleep (Kate M did actually admit to having given M stuff in the past to make her sleep) that somehow things went wrong or there was an accident. Instead of reporting it, they decided to cover it up, knowing that they would possibly be in big trouble as doctors for giving M a drug, which could cost their careers.... Dogs found evidence of a body having been in the boot of the family hire car, that was poo-pooed and stamped all over by the McCann PR machine as have many other shall we say alternate views of this case. Reading news from abroad about the case is quite an eye-opener........

From that first morning the McCanns never looked like frightened parents, not like little April's or any other of the abducted parents I have ever seen in the media - they looked sad! They knew their daughter was dead, they weren't panicking about her whereabouts like parents of a missing child would be. I know I would be beside myself, I think most parents would be - they have been calm all along, and their first instinct was control, that's what calling in the media was about.....

My theory might seem far fetched but I don't think it's any more far fetched than an abductor coming in, taking a sleeping child - incidentally whilst leaving two sleeping babies who would surely have been better subjects for abduction - and then just melting into the night.........

[Suff]

Dogs found evidence of a body having been in the boot of the family hire car

For all that I pretty much ignore "Madie" news, I had heard that and forgotten it. It seems that this particular piece of evidence was lost in the media onslaught.

I must admit I listen to things as they go on and just let my instincts react.

The day after 9/11 my instinct was "Can the US really have attacked themselves". It just arrived and was ignored to resurface later.

Immediately I heard about the Photo Fit picture, assembled years after the event my immediate thoughts were. "You have got to be joking, who can give a photo fit description after more than a week???" You'd be lucky to get a really accurate one out of me more than a day later.

I shall continue avoiding the circus. If she really was abducted, then my heart goes out to them. If not, it is unlikely we will ever get to the bottom of it. They're too well educated to make the kind of mistakes that lead to that kind of hard evidence trail.

[Workingman]

If the story was being serialised in a Sunday paper as a whodunit novel the critics would have a field day. It would be trashed for all the inconsistencies, the artificial lead characters, the ever changing statements from "witnesses" who witnessed nothing, the media circus, the audience with the Pope, the interference of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and PM elect.......

The publisher would pull it before it hit the shelves.

[pederito1]

I don`t agree Frank and have tried to read far worse "who dun its" than this particularly if it does have a happy ending though
unlikely to be known by any one not involved. Thanks Kaz for your view, I will never fall out with any one for expressing an honest opinion, agree to differ perhaps but in this case I too have never completely eliminated McCs from some involvement. The only thing we can be sure of is that they have made a nice bit of moulah out of the tragedy and will continue to do so now that they have applied to become Assistentes in Portugal so they can make a private prosecution. I think their attitude in not displaying normal emotion can be explained by their profession but what is not so clear is why they allowed all and sundry to tramp around the bedroom before forensics arrived nor why they hired a car for no apparent reason coupled with the dog evidence. It is quite inconceivable that they could have given her a dose of sleeping pills sufficient to kill her but could she have found and taken more herself and they found her dead, but surely resuscitation would have been tried. Understandable that they would not have wanted a pathe bod doing any routing.
Am very intrigued by the case and considered several theories each with a fairly equal degree of implausibility, starting of course with the horrific one that she was taken by a disgusting paedo who had been stalking and was lurking to seize his opportunity, Then the burglar possibility in which she could have woken and maybe recognised him only to be silenced.
Fraid we shall never know but it would be surely wonderful if she could be found alive.

[miasmum]

I am completely with Kaz on this one. The one thing Kate M did that was so unbelievable to me was when she washed Madeleine's cuddle cat. My Luke has a spotty dog, he has had it for 22 years, yes it does go in the washing machine occasionally, but if anything happened to him I would, never, ever wash Spotty. I would need to bury my nose in his fur constantly and yet that cold fish WASHED IT

Plus the video they showed of Madeleine on Christmas morning opening her presents sitting at a small table. What child sits on her own at a table to open her Christmas presents?

Very bizarre

[KateLMead]

I am amazed that there was absolutely no investigations carried out on that building site adjoining the hotel following the child going missing.
I felt this from day one and it is an area that has stood out in my mind since, the construction site was in action, strange I thought at the time that no investigation in that area were carried out

[shazsha]

I actually thought as you did Kaz at one point but my doubt started setting in when no trace of M was found.

Going by the time she was last seen and the time the police were alerted there really isn't that much time to hide a body, especially considering they were strangers to the area.
Also a scenario like that would have involved getting help from others and I really can't see anyone in that group jeopardising their own family and career and reputation in such a serious situation. I know I certainly wouldn't contemplate it for family let alone friends.

However, if the mystery is ever solved, I don't think I would be shocked no matter what way it panned out-there's just too much confusion in the whole story (especially the newest fact that the e-fits released on crimewatch were actually created a couple of years ago by the McCann investigators(the ones they fell out with) and not by Scotland Yard in this new investigation.

[Kaz]

It's all smoke and mirrors! So much of which has been put out by the McCann PR machine that I doubt we'll ever know the real truth